PHILADELPHIA — Harrath Araissi, 47, is a native of Tunisia but lives in Fishtown and considers himself a true Philadelphian now — and the Mummers are as integral to the city as the Liberty Bell, he says.
"I come almost every year," Arraisi said as he pushed his son, Rayyan, 4, in a stroller at the Mummers Parade Sunday morning. "It's so much fun. It's part of Philly."
Arraisi attended in 2022, and said it was cold and the crowd was sparse. He noted the thousand more that lined Broad Street this year. He staked out a spot at Broad and Chestnut Streets.
Indeed, multiple Mummers said it appeared to be the largest crowd in years helped by springlike temperatures and sunny skies. Last year was marked by not only cold, but a resurgent COVID-19 pandemic.
It also marked a renewal of the Mummers of sorts, with a new TV contract and an effort to diversify by moving away from racist and culturally insensitive themes as they strutted a little more than a mile down Broad, from City Hall to Washington Avenue.
Further putting parade-goers into a good mood: an afternoon Eagles game against the Saints just down the street. Many donned Eagles jerseys and hats as they brought in the New Year at the parade, yelling 'Go Birds!' or chanting 'E-A-G-L-E-S!'"
It was the first Mummers Parade for Christine Calenza, 31, of Conshohocken, and she held a sign proudly declaring so. Calenza attended with a group of eight people headed to Lincoln Financial Field to watch the Eagles take on the Saints at 1 p.m.
"Oh my God, it's been so much fun," Calenza said of the parade. "I'm almost sad I have to leave soon to go to the game. It's just been excellent, and the party is just getting started. The music, the costumes, the energy — everyone is so nice today, Not one single mean person in the crowd."
Ken and John Bispels, both Mummers from Northeast Philly, and with the O'Malley wench club, said the clubs and crowds were enjoying themselves for the first time in years without worrying about COVID-19.
"The weather is a big bonus," Ken Bispels said as some people walked by in shorts and shirtsleeves as temperatures rose into the upper 50s with almost no wind.
Carrying ashes
The Mummers tradition runs deep in Philly, often spanning generations.
Julie Leinhauser, treasurer of the Uptown String Band, toted the ashes of longtime Mummer Frank Carberry, who died last January at 91.
Leinhauser, 32, of Somerton, agreed to carry the ashes at the request of Carberry's Northeast Philly neighbor, former Inquirer sports reporter Bill Iezzi.
Iezzi said Carberry played the banjo for Uptown for about 25 years beginning in 1959. Carberry's wife, June, sent the ashes from Port St. Lucie, Fla., to Iezzi. Overall, Carberry was a Mummer for 60 years and played with three other string bands.
"I was supposed to spread his ashes along the parade route," said Iezzi, who had second thoughts about whether that would be appropriate in front of the crowd.
Leinhauser, dressed as an orangutan as part of the band's safari theme, carried the ashes in a bag in her pocket so she would be free to play the banjo and perform.
"I'm happy to do it," said Leinhauser, who joined Uptown in 2013 but did not know Carberry, who had already retired as a Mummer.
Iezzi retrieved the ashes at Washington Avenue with plans to bring them back next year.
"As long as I'm alive, Carberry will continue marching," Iezzi said. "He was one of my favorite neighbors."
'Give us gin'
Such devotion to the Mummers is not unusual.
The annual Mummers Parade traces itself as the oldest continuous folk parade held in the U.S., dating back 100 years or more before its first officially city-sanctioned parade in 1901. European immigrants first brought the tradition of informal mummery, sometimes strutting through city streets on either Dec. 26 or New Year's Day when they would carouse neighborhoods with skits while asking for food or drink, and reciting poems such as:
"Here we stand before your door, as we stood the year before; give us whiskey, give us gin, open the door and let us in" — hence, the tradition of South Philadelphians hosting open houses on New Year's Day.
The 10,000 or so participating mummers are organized by clubs in one of five divisions: Comic, Fancy, Wench, and String Band. The Fancy Brigades separately perform their elaborate shows inside the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
Over the past week, groups rehearsed at the Mummers Museum, which opened in 1976 at Second Street and Washington Aveue in South Philly. The museum contains a collection of costumes, oral histories, video and audio archives, an instructional exhibit for the famed strut, and a gift shop.
Modernizing Mummers
There, Scott Brown hopes to breathe new life into the institution. Brown, retired from the military, and also a member, became executive director of the museum in July, along with an entirely new board.
Brown said membership to the museum, ranging in prices from $25 to $1,500, had dwindled to 27.
"We're all friends," Brown said of the board. "And we're all we have one good vision for the museum. We started the first ever membership drive. ... We've brought in over 400 new members."
Brown said there is also a lot more diversity to the parade than in the past as women and people of color now participate. The groups have been stung in the past by accusations of racism over costumes and themes, such as the use of black face.
Sammy Regalbuto, president of the Philadelphia Mummers String Band Association, and a vice president of Quaker City, said the divisions have been training with the city. As a result, Mummers have moved away from themes that involve ethnic groups and more toward the realm of fantasy, comic books, or movies.
Maita Soukup, a spokeswoman for Parks and Recreation, said the clubs "receive training in understanding cultural appropriation, rules of satire, LGBTQ cultural competence, and bias awareness. These trainings were developed and led by the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations (PCHR) and the City of Philadelphia Office of LGBT Affairs."
A new TV contract
However, Regalbuto said the pandemic crimped the diversity outreach mummers had hoped for. He said the pandemic also hurt finances, as string bands, which depend on money from performances all year long, could not play.
"We're working hard to take it into a newer direction," Regalbuto said. "And I think people are starting to see the hard work."
A new TV contract to air the parade on WDPN-TV (MeTV2) is part of that direction, he said. PHL17 had broadcast the event for the past 32 years. The Mummers also found a new sponsor and partner in Live! Casino & Hotel.
The pandemic had also made it difficult for Mummers to gather — which they need to do within a week of the parade to start planning the next year's theme. Now, that's back on track. Within the next few weeks, the groups will gather, assess their recent performance, and then start forming committees for the 2024 parade.
"You have to move quickly and start developing right away," Regalbuto said. "You have to get your artists and your designers to draw pictures of costumes and characters so that you can start to develop the process. It takes months and months."
-------
(Former Inquirer writer Bill Iezzi contributed to this article.)
